Buckeye State or Banana Republic?

Ever since Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner was elected following the near-Democratic sweep of statewide offices in November 2006, she has worked steadily to give her party the edge it needs to win the White House in 2008.

Knowing that no Republican has ever won the presidency without Ohio, and that the Buckeye State gave George W. Bush his electoral margin of victory in 2004, Brunner has turned a blind eye to massive voter fraud throughout the state by Democratic party-aligned groups like ACORN. She is also flagrantly violating Ohio election law and pulling out all the stops for her man, Barack Obama, in this battleground state.

The most critical issue might be decided within the next few days. Secretary Brunner has unilaterally opened a one-week window, from September 30-October 6, for absentee voters to register and cast a ballot on the same day, with only the last four digits of th Social Security number needed to vote. No ID, no problem.

This method, of course, opens up the system to massive voter fraud. Not only that, but state law requires that voters be registered 30 days in advance of when they vote — a provision of the law that Brunner’s week-long window openly flouts. The Ohio GOP filed a lawsuit with the Ohio Supreme Court earlier this month to put a stop to the practice.

Then on Thursday, the ACLU jumped into the fray by filing their own lawsuit in federal court in support of Brunner’s plan, claiming that following the 30 day advance registration law could disenfranchise voters. Thus, the Ohio Supreme Court, which could rule at any moment on the matter, may end up being overruled by an unelected federal court judge. This reverses the scenario seen in 2000, when Democrats complained that the U.S. Supreme Court intervened against the Florida Supreme Court’s attempts to erase Bush’s razor thin victory there. Democrat complaints about federal intervention in state elections appear to depend on whose ox (invariably the GOP’s) is getting gored.

Secretary Brunner’s same-day registration and voting plan only scratches the surface of the partisan warfare she has waged to ensure Ohio swings for Barack Obama and her fellow Democrats on November 4.

In a move to actively suppress GOP absentee voting, Brunner has directed county election boards to reject potentially thousands of Republican applications for absentee ballots prepared by the McCain campaign, which sent out more than 1 million applications. The applications include a check box to note that the applicant is a qualified voter. Brunner, however, has stated that if the box isn’t checked, the application must be rejected.

But as Cincinnati Enquirer columnist Peter Bronson observed earlier this week, a valid application for absentee ballots can be submitted on the back of a grocery sack, as long as it includes the voter’s name, address, signature, and government-issued ID information, making the check box on the McCain-printed absentee applications superfluous. Two voters who had their applications rejected on that basis have sued to stop the secretary of state’s edict, and at least one government official has issued an opinion that Brunner is acting contrary to state law.

Jennifer Brunner’s attempts to suppress Republican absentee voters in Ohio is far from trivial, as more than 300,000 voters have already applied for absentee ballots in just the four largest counties in the state. In my own home of Franklin County (Columbus), 130,000 applications — or 16 percent of registered voters countywide — have already been received. Both John McCain and Barack Obama are trying to bank these early votes in their favor, which will almost certainly be necessary to secure a win in the Buckeye State and net Ohio’s crucial 20 electoral votes.

Not all of Brunner’s partisan actions have been so overt. In fact, she has been planning ahead for legal challenges to her efforts by rigging county board of elections in favor of Democrats. Last year, the Canton Repositoryreported comments made by Stark County Democratic Chairman Johnnie Maier that Brunner was attempting to stack local election boards with Democratic lawyers to counter the GOP:

The party chairman said Brunner wanted county Democratic parties to select attorneys to fill spots on county boards of elections — to help counter purported legal maneuvers by Republican board members to suppress the Democratic vote. The board always has two Democrats and two Republicans.

And then there is the blind eye that Brunner has been turning to flagrant election fraud through bogus voter registrations submitted by ACORN. The Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) Board of Elections is currently investigating 75,000 ACORN registrations, with multiple registrations under the same name, different birth dates, and non-existent addresses. The Cleveland Plain Dealerreported just a few weeks ago:

Board employees are unsure how many of the cards are fraudulent. But the voter registration department received so many suspicious cards that it began compiling a binder with evidence. The binder grew to be an inch-thick.

Numerous reports of bogus registrations submitted by ACORN and other Democratic Party-aligned organizations have surfaced statewide, and yet no action has been taken by the secretary of state. Added to her overlooking systematic voter fraud by Democratic Party allies, Jennifer Brunner’s flagrant ignoring of election laws, suppressing Republican voters, and stacking local election boards represent an unparalleled corrupting of Ohio’s election system.

Thus, Obama’s chances to win the White House have improved dramatically by having one of his own as Ohio’s highest election official. But the price of his victory might be for Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to turn the Buckeye State into banana republic.

40 Comments, 40 Threads

1.
Marc Malone

Don’t just sue her in court! Arrest her for voter fraud! Many, many counts of voter fraud. Have the Feds step in and sieze the system. She’s attempting to hijack a federal election. God, but this stuff is going to continue unless someone files some damned criminal charges. Charge her with sedition or treason. Then hang her. That’ll stop the damned nonsense, once and for all.

Where are the Ohio voters on this one? Where is the outrage? Are the people of Ohio just sitting around while Brunner does whatever she wants? This story has been developing for a little while and it’s time for the people of Ohio to stand up for what’s right, before it all goes wrong.

We have enough problems right now, rampant and flagrant voter fraud doesn’t need to become another one.

My letter to the editor in the Canton Repository 4 weeks ago warned of her fraud. You people have no idea the extent she is going to make sure Obama wins Ohio. The woman is a criminal. She will cost the Dems dearly in 2 yrs if Obama wins this State due to voter fraud. Summit Co. (Akron) has reported Tiger Woods is registered to vote in Akron Ohiom Brunner refused to throw the ACORN registration out.

Please let everyone you know in Ohio to call the Ohio Democrat Party and let them know they will not support the Dems unless they rein her in.

One of the most irritating things about the people who write for PJM is their constant unwillingness to check such facts and to distinguish between these two types of sources.

“In Ohio, a recently enacted state law — the subject of the Brunner directive — allows residents, for the first time in a general presidential election, to vote early by absentee ballot without providing a justification.

Advocates for the homeless and other groups say they will direct new voters to take advantage of the overlap between early voting, which begins Sept. 30, and voter registration, which ends Oct. 6. During that window, citizens can register and vote simultaneously.”

Ohio has a Republican controlled legislature and they are the ones who passed this law.

The Secretary of State’s responsibility is perfectly clear. She has to enforce the law as written, not as the dolts who passed it should have written it.

As written, there is nothing to legally prevent the entire city of Cleveland from marching into the Board of Elections and registering on the same day as they file an absentee ballot. And any one who helps them to do it is not committing “voter fraud”.

“Ms. Brunner’s position is that early ballots do not constitute votes until they are tabulated on Nov. 4, said Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Ms. Brunner.”

This position is the only sensible position given the laws as written. The legal status of such absentee ballots is exactly the same as “provisional ballots” taken at the polls, which cannot be counted in an election until valid registrations have been confirmed for them.

Valid registration cards, with dates, are kept as originals with signatures on them by each county Board of Elections. Facimilies of these signatures appear directly on the voting rolls sent to the polls, where a voter must countersign on the roll book itself, as well as provide valid ID, to get in a regular, non-provisional, voting booth.

All absentee ballots also contain signatures which must be matched by employees of the Board of Elections against the registration cards.

“Republican officials are furious, charging that the one-stop process will encourage voter fraud. They argue that a state law requires Ohio residents to register at least 30 days before voting, so same-day registration and voting should be banned.”

Poor babies. It is, of course, perfectly legitimate to challenge the inconsistency and ask a court to resolve it. But they shouldn’t have passed the inane law in the first place, and nobody has any justification for blaming Bruner for the mess.

“On Sept. 5, Ms. Brunner told election boards that Republicans had passed a law concerning caging that she considered unconstitutional, and that a single returned election notice cannot be used as the sole basis to cancel a voter’s residency. She also said every challenged voter must be notified and given a chance to attend a hearing before Election Day.”

This position is perfectly consistent with the Federal voting rights laws, the case law surrounding it [including the famous Supreme Court decision about Florida's votes in the year 2000] and the “equal protection of law” clause in the Constitution. And Bruner also has the obligation to avoid lawsuits where she has reason to believe that the State would be in the wrong.

“Kevin DeWine, deputy chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said “nothing is off the table” in terms of election tactics, but he declined to be more specific.”

Now what does this mean? Let’s say that I wanted to prevent Patrick Poole from voting. Voting rolls are public records accessible to all, and his county’s voting roll includes both his address and his party affiliation or lack of one.

There is absolutely nothing to prevent me from filling out a change of address card and then sending him a piece of mail which the Post Office then returns to me, that now becomes a valid legal reason to obliterate his vote when a challenger presents it at the polls.

There is nothing to prevent the wholesale use of such tactics to disenfranchise thousands of Democrats. consider this:

“After the election [2004], the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee compiled a list of irregularities and grievances, including 10-hour lines in some urban areas, thousands of Republican challengers concentrated around polling places in minority and Democratic areas, and fake voter bulletins that told Republicans to vote on Tuesday and Democrats to vote on Wednesday.”

Thus if “nothing is off the table” with Republican election tactics, I wouldn’t be more specific either because this particular tactic is a violation of several Federal laws and it is one that is virtually untraceable and unprovable.

But then all forms of voting fraud are both Ohio and Federal felonies. And there is no more reason to assume Democrats are willing to break such laws than Republicans.

“While the administration of President George W. Bush has made prosecuting voter fraud a priority, the government has provided little evidence that registration fraud is widespread or that it has a significant impact on elections. The U.S. Department of Justice said in March that it has convicted 102 people of voter fraud of various types since October 2002.”

One hundred and two successful convictions by a Federal Government that convicts 90% of the defendants it tries across all criminal cases.

The question of Dem voter fraud is not that it happens; it’s if enough of it happens to matter. McCain is way up if my scientific survey of yard signs is valid.

Face it. When you hear Democrat, you think voter fraud. It’s a science to them. Brunner is just ham-fisted about it, which is why it’s a story. If Obama wins, unless it’s a landslide, it will be fraudulent.

In response to Mr. Marshall: the problem is that people who have sent in the form to receive an absentee ballot have been denied based on a check box that has nothing to do with the law about requesting an absentee ballot. There is a great chance of voter fraud when people are driving around collecting votes from folks who have no way of proving they are who they say they are or that they are qualified voters. That’s why we now have to present ID to vote. If someone has no ID, no bill stub, no social security number that can be found easily or readily, then how can it be proven that you are a qualified voter? That is the problem with registering and allowing folks to vote in the same day. That’s a problem that both sides should be worried about since it could be easily swayed.

Joseph Marshall, read the article you linked to more closely.
While the Republican legislature passed the law, the intent was not to let someone register and vote on the same day. It is Ms. Brunner’s interpretation that an absentee vote submitted on the day of registration does not count as a vote until it is counted on November 4. This is how she evades the requirement that a person be registered to vote 30 days prior to casting a ballot.
It’s all about fraud with the Democrats, from Washington State to Florida, Missouri and Wisconsin.

There’s an interesting case evolving in Michigan right now, where Republican operatives are planning to cage the votes of people whose homes have been foreclosed. The “lose your home, lose your vote” tactic (how Republican!) is being challenged by the Obama campaign.

Democrats wrote the book on voter fraud. Just ask Hillary supporters how it feels to be a victim of their own party’s criminal voter fraud. Obama already stole the nomination and is preparing to steal the general election.

I repeat, Bruner’s responsibility is to apply the laws as written, not as anyone’s opinion of the legislative “intent” might suggest. That’s why we have laws–to restrain both the power of the executive and actions citizens. If the law does not prohibit polling and registering the same day, no one has any reason to expect her to prohibit it on her own accord.

Both laws are being followed by the registrant. Valid registration extends to October 6 so anyone has the right to register at any time up to then.

Absentee balloting can be requested after September 30, so anyone has the right to request one, and the Board of Elections must accept a ballot turned in from a valid request.

And the legal status of ballots whose registration has not been confirmed either by a lawful pair of poll workers from different parties or by a lawful employee of the Board of Elections, is also quite clear in Ohio.
They are “provisional” ballots and not legal votes.

Moreover, such ballots, also by law, cannot be counted or evaluated until after the election is finished.

If these laws are inconsistent with one another that is a matter for a court to decide which law trumps the other. Not you, not I, and not the Ohio Secretary of State. That’s why [among other reasons] we have courts. And I frankly doubt that any court will support the Republican case. The presumption, even in Gore v. Bush is that the voter’s rights are paramount.

Despite the example of George W. Bush’s presidency, laws are not “suggestions” for an all omnipotent executive. And even he is having his little piles of dominoes systematically knocked down by the courts for attempting to treat them so.

But enough of the civics lesson.

The part of Mr. Poole’s article that I am referring to is this:

“The most critical issue might be decided within the next few days. Secretary Brunner has unilaterally opened a one-week window, from September 30-October 6, for absentee voters to register and cast a ballot on the same day, with only the last four digits of th Social Security number needed to vote. No ID, no problem.”

I did not quote it, because I presumed the PJM readership was capable of reading it themselves and understanding that this was the issue I was addressing.

Joseph Marshall attacks me for my sources and then provides a link to a supposedly “independent source”, aka a Wall Street Journal article, which allegedly contradicts me. Except of course the WSJ article he cites is the second one I link to above.

What a f***ing moron.

And as for me quoting “Republican flacks”, here are the sources for my article, which I also link to:

And there should be a transparent, publicized investigation into the possibility of election fraud. If the allegations in this article are true, the perpetrators need to be arraigned, tried, and sent to jail. Surely there is a mechanism to accomplish this?

I don’t think we are being understanding enough of the uncomfortable position the Democrats are in right now. Their candidate is being shown for the terrorist loving thug he really is and it’s got all their panties in a huge twist! You would be irritable and testy too if you had to keep barfing up the same talking points provided to you by Axelrod.
I think the question we all need to ask ourselves is “Have you hugged a Democrat today?”

We’re turning into Mexico. The Democratic Party is becoming the equivalent of Mexico’s long-ruling and still potent PPR (sp?).

With a Democratic Congress attempting to add on $100 billion for ACORN, La Raza (we REALLY are turning into Mexico, aren’t we?) and the Urban League (basically white-collar criminal organizations), and party operatives going after opponents throught the courts (NRA ads, or any negative anti-Obama ads, harassing campaign contributors, etc.), the “culture of corruption” is reaching new heights, and it’s all in the laps of the Democrats now.

To compound matters, low-level Democrats in certain constituencies have shown a propensity for physical confrontation, vandalism, and cyber-mob action. It will get worse: with Obama’s intention to virtually quintuple the federal “volunteer” organizations by expanding existing ones and adding new ones, the Democrats are going to have hundreds of thousands of new, organized “ground troops,” which will likely include minority gang members (of which tens of thousands will be illegal aliens), who will be recruited under the guise of “rehabilitation.”

With so many uber-wealthy people funding left-wing activism (boggles the mind, doesn’t it?), coupled with taxpayer money, the funding pool for this vast scheme will be enormous.

To think that had I read what I just wrote from someone else a decade ago, I would have called such a person a “crank,”and laughed it off. No more. To one extent or another, a good deal of what I summarized here — and possibly all of it — will come true.

My apologies to you, Mr. Poole. You are quite right and I was both wrong in substance and intemperate in language, and will withdraw from the discussion.

But I do have one suggestion to anyone here who seriously wants to combat voter fraud: Volunteer to be a pollworker. In Ohio it will cost you no more than one afternoon of your time for orientation and one long day of very hard work. You will also learn something about the real safeguards that exist to protect the integrity of your vote and participate in applying them.

If you, yourself, did this, Mr. Poole, you could write a follow-up piece from first hand experience about how porous Ohio’s procedures truly are to massive voter fraud.

That’s BS. If you’re no longer residing at an address, you can’t legally vote as a resident of that address, but you CAN VOTE USING THE ADDRESS WHERE YOU ARE CURRENTLY RESIDING. It’s ALWAYS been that way, and the onus has always been on the voter to re-register with their correct address.

So let me get this right: This policial criminal is (1) PERMITTING Democrap votes WITHOUT the required information and WITHOUT having been registered in accordance with the law while (2) DENYING valid Republican votes.

Yup, a bananna republic. What a joke. Facism isn’t on its way, it’s here.

Looks like Brunner is doing an algore. Trying to nullify the vote of absentee ballots (military in particular) because she knows damned well that most will go Republican. Barring that, I’m sure she’ll use the dem standby of illegal aliens and dead people.

As a longtime resident of Chicago and its environs I have been aware of such manipulations by the Chicago Democratic party for many years. I suppose other people can think this stuff up for themselves, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find directives from the Obama campaign behind this.

“But I do have one suggestion to anyone here who seriously wants to combat voter fraud: Volunteer to be a pollworker.”

Say Marshall, how is volunteering to be a poll worker going to prevent fraud in absentee ballots? I’m starting to see a pattern of not thinking before you write. You have not helped the crediblity of Ohio Democrats here.

we are not becoming Mexico. the PRI was the ruling party. the president of Mexico (Harvard grad) belongs to PAN (National action Party). even the Mexicans couldn’t put up with voter fraud any longer. they have a government voter ID. the ruling party would just issue new ones and they would go to another poll and vote. Most presidents of Mexico have been U.S. educated. they are trying to become like us. vote early and vote often.

That’s right, Heather – you don’t have to even live in America to vote, as you all know, as long as you’re registered to vote in a particular state. I’ve lived overseas many years the past 2 decades and have had different addresses on different continents, with no problems voting on the federal and state & local elections.

Obama campaign gave $800,000 TO ACORN…to “get out he vote”..ha..to buy the voter fraud services of this criminal organization Obama was the lawyer for….he defended them in a voter fraud case..he knows what they do….Obama campaign should be investigated under RICO along with its ACORN Waffen SS henchmen…

To a liberal, politics is not a philosophy its a religion. The souls of liberals are lost in their ambition to dictate and control the ‘values’ of a culture through a central authority. All other values and voices in society must be silenced because liberals believe they have supreme intellect (sorta like Bin Laden). You will never be able to convince a liberal to stop hating the attributes that make America great. Its like asking a normal person to stop believing in a Loving God.

We need to get Jennifer Brunner out of office. She is a disgrace and her tactics are harmful to all americans because they make a joke out of our election process! Whether you are democrat or republican or independent, you should fight for the integrity of our election process.

It’s a travesty that people like jennifer Brunner are allowed to hold public office. Our entire democracy depends on fair elections. Voter fraud should be vigorously prosecuted by the authorities, with automatic jail time for offenders … and that includes voter fraud perpetrated by high ranking officials as well. Perhaps if stiff jail sentences were imposed, organizations like Acorn would think twice about defrauding the system, and defrauding the American people. This issue once again shows how important trust is … and, that’s why I would rather trust a man who would not sell out his fellow prisoners, even during 5 years of torture, than to trust a man who betrayed a 20 year friendship, for personal ambition.

Wow, I just walked into a room full of paranoid neocons! Seems you’re all a little pissy about the Secretary of State in Ohio there. I’ve got two words for you: Ken Blackwell. And two more: Katherine Harris. The person in charge of elections in a state should have zero connections with any candidate running in an election that he/she oversees. They shouldn’t even be allowed to express their opinion on who they are voting for. Regardless of party. Say what you will about Florida 2000 or Ohio 2004 in general, but you cannot deny at least the apperance of a conflict of interest in having people related to one candidate’s campaign overseeing the election. I’m sure there are Democrats who have been guilty of this as well. It shouldn’t be allowed by anyone from any party. But in the case of Blackwell, his actions are far more egregious than anything Brunner has done. In 2004 Blackewell insisted election equipment be switched to Diebold voting machines, that leave no paper trail. The CEO of Diebold said we are “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president (as in GW Bush) next year.” Blackwell happened to own stock in Diebold. Wow. So before you go ripping into the current SoS of Ohio, remember how dishonest the person before was. You won’t, of course, agree because he was from your party and helped your guy. But then to use Tucker’s words from an earlier post, but instead inserting reality, “To a CONSERVATIVE, politics is not a philosophy its a religion. The souls of CONSERVATIVES are lost in their ambition to dictate and control the ‘values’ of a culture through a central authority. All other values and voices in society must be silenced because CONSERVATIVES believe they have supreme intellect (sorta like Bin Laden).” After all, your politics parallel your religion. Your party tries to control the “values” of America, through politics. And you all think you’re smarter than liberals, based solely on the fact that they don’t agree with you. Thanks for the wisdom Tucker, and thanks for giving us Sarah Palin. Our gift in return, Barack HUSSEIN (suck on that conservatives, its only a friggin name!!!) Obama.

But while we’re on the topic of names, here’s a few for you to think about. Dick Lugar, R- Senator from Indiana, shares a last name (and possibly family ties) with Georg Lugar, German inventor of the pistol that shares his name and was used to kill countless Americans in World Wars I and II. Orrin Hatch, R- Utah, shares a last name with Richard Hatch, winner of the first Survivor season, who is also a homosexual and is in prison for tax evasion. Roger Wicker, R- Mississippi and also a Southern Baptist, shares a last name with Christine Wicker, author of a book critical of Evangelical Christians and Southern Baptists in particular. Arlen Specter, R- Pennsylvania, shares a last name with producer Phil Specter, who is currently on trial for murder. My point is, people, who gives a crap what Obama’s middle name is. It doesn’t mean he supports Saddam Hussein anymore than the people I just mentioned support their namesakes. Get over your paranoia.